Acer Aspire 6935 Keyboard Cleaning

Is there a way to remove the keyboard from the laptop so it can be cleaned thoroughly?

Thnx in advance!

 

1) Yes
2) 'Thorough cleaning' is usually the thread before the "??? keyboard doesnt work now" thread

You should not use any liquid cleaner like water or IPA (may lift lettering)
Foam cleaner sprayed onthe cloth then wiped on the keys is about the most.

If there are general crumbs and dust this is best removed using a domestic vacuum's pointed suction nozzle between the keys. This should be done before getting the dirt wet cleaning the key tops. If you ever had a key top come loose (or anyway) stretch a bit of nylon stocking over the end of the vacuum nozzle (elastic band to hold) just in case.

Neither of these steps requires keyboard removal.
If you do remove the keyboard you can add removing tiny screws, prizing the keyboard top free without damaging the casing and balancing it in the air while correctly detatching and re attaching a delicate ribbon cable to the challenges. Damaged or incorrectly re inserted ribbon cables will cause problems and may not be re-usable after this.

 

Thank you for your reply! However i want to be able to remove the keyboard keys so i can clean the dirt that has fallen underneath the keys. My question is how do i remove them or even the entire keyboard i need step by step information on how to do this.

My keyboard does work but it needs cleaning due to eating when using the laptop.

 

If you can remove and replace all the keys on a laptop without breaking something I will stand in awe.

Someone else may be more positive about this however

 

You can remove the keyboard after removing the speakers but I don't recommend that method for cleaning since there's another plate that holds the keys together which kind of put you back to the same situation as not removing it to begin with.

 

The 4420 has two screws under the speaker cover to hold the keyboard. The 4420 speaker cover is just clipped on the laptop. Just pry out the speaker cover for 4420.

The 5720 has two screws inside the battery compartment to hold the speaker cover. There is no screw to hold the keyboard. It is held by 4 clips.

So, I don't know about the 6935; but if you can remove the speaker cover, the keyboard is just basically held in place by 4 metal clips at the four corners.

The keyboard is very flimsy. I don't recommend you to take it out.

 

Ok thnx for your replies.

I've read somewhere that there are people who remove the entire keyboard so it is not connected and they clean it with water. They let the keyboard dry and then put it back in. This is what i actually wanted to do. However if the keys can be removed i would like to know how if this is a better solution?

Thnx in advance!

 

How many ways . . ?


NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO !!!!!



Seriously . . . even if washing your keyboard was a good idea water near your Electronics is NOT NOT NOT the thing to do !

A damp cloth to clean the key-tops is the very most you should consider and then only with great care. PC cleaning wipes are a safer bet.

There is no safe way to use liquid to clean under the keypads . . What on earth have you got in there ?

 

@SSJVegetto
Hi! I have some experience on Aspire 7520 with cleaning the keyboard in a way similar to the one which you described.

I was cleaning it and spilled a bottle of ethanol on it. There was no damage, but it didn't work for a few weeks.

The problems with it was that it is constructed in such way that it just doesn't dry easily. For example under the keys there were several plastic sheets one on top of the other with conductors running through them.

On desktop keyboards they can easily be separated but here they were welded along their edges.

At first it seemed that the welding was perfect and that no ethanol got between the sheets. After more careful analyses I saw that the welding was imperfect and that at some points ethanol did manage to get in between the sheets.
The problem was that because the sheets were welded together, it took a long time for them to dry because there was no easy way to separate them without damaging the conductors.

Now water evaporates slower than ethanol, so if you do wash it, it would take a very long time for it to dry.

Also it was very difficult and very time-consuming to remove all the keys and then put them back together (much more then on desktop keyboards!) because the key assembly is very fragile. Fortunately my Aspire 7720 has same keyboard as 7520 so I had a reference when I was assembling it.

In my opinion it just isn't worth the trouble to clean laptop keyboard by submerging it in water or any similar liquid.

I know that 6935 has somewhat different keyboard, but I belie

 

what i do is that i close the laptop on the bed, flip it upside down, and open it with a 35 degree angle. than i start patting on the part with the keyboard (from outside) and then just start pressing and moving my hand across the keys, making the dust from the keyboard to fall on the screen.

 

So is there a definite answer about removing the 6935 keyboard? I spilt beer on mine and luckily after letting it dry out, it seems as though it's just the keyboard that has been affected since everything, apart from most of the keys, is working fine. Although I hope it isn't the keyboard controller.

So I need to get mine out to clean or replace if need be, and I don't want to try lifting speaker covers and such until I definitely know they are meant to come up.

 

I think this thread has been extremely clear.

You cannot clean beer out of a keyboard without problems returning later.

If you are prepared to work on your laptop forget cleaning it and spend £35 on a new keyboard.

I would advise ordering a service manual, generally a $10 download. This will explain exactly what to do and equally importantly what not to do. It will also give you the exact part number for your language version so you don't end up with the Russian/Chinese version off ebay

Having never seen your laptop (but having seen a lot of others and only if the manual is not available my approach would be

• Turn over, remove battery, remove all visible screws from the case (they may vary in size /length so make a paper storage area and mark where they are from.
  
• Closely inspect the upper edge of the keyboard.
• If you see 2 - 5 plastic tabs or claws try to ease the keyboard out from them
• If you do not, try to gently lift the speaker area as the fixing may be under there.
  
• Once things start moving STOP. the upper and keyboard panels will be connected to the motherboard by thin delicate flexible cables. The Keyboard cable is almost always a locking type requiring something to be flipped, lifted, moved up/out a mm or so etc. DO NOT PULL THE CABLES until you are sure there is either no locking mechanism or that you have correctly released it.
  
• No promises but I am developing a view that lockable flat cable connectors usually have two colours of plastic as well as two interlocking parts, while non lockable ones are made in 1 piece of a single colour. Only a thought though as I am sure there is an exception :

As I mention at that stage a new keyboard is the real answer, not trying to 'wash/clean/whatever